The Department of Comparative Literature offers courses in the history and theory of literature through comparative approaches. The department accepts candidates for the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. The department is a part of the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages.

The field of Comparative Literature provides students the opportunity to study imaginative literature in all its forms. While other literary disciplines focus on works of literature as parts of specific national or linguistic traditions, Comparative Literature draws on literature from multiple contexts in order to examine the nature of literary phenomena from around the globe and from different historical moments, while exploring how literature interacts with other elements of culture and society. We study literary forms such as fictional narratives, performance and poetry, as well as cinema, music, and emerging aesthetic media.

Along with the traditional model of comparative literature that juxtaposes two or more national literary cultures, the department supports teaching and research that examine literary phenomena with additional tools of inquiry such as literary theory, the relationship between literature and philosophy, and the enrichment of literary study with other disciplinary methodologies. Comparative Literature also encourages the study of aspects of literature that surpass national boundaries, such as transnational literary movements or the creative adaptation of particular genres to local cultures. In each case, students emerge from the program with enhanced verbal and writing skills, a command of literary studies, the ability to read analytically and critically, and a more global knowledge of literature.

Mission of the Undergraduate Program in Comparative Literature

The mission of the undergraduate program in Comparative Literature is to enhance students’ verbal and written communication skills, their ability to read analytically and critically as well as to develop their global knowledge of literary cultures and the specific properties of literary texts. The program provides students with the opportunity to study imaginative literature in all of its forms, investigating the complex interplay of the literary imagination and historical and social experience.

Along with providing core courses that introduce students to major literary forms in a comparative frame, our program of study is flexible in order to accommodate student interest in areas such as specific geographic regions, historical periods, and interdisciplinary connections between literature and other fields such as philosophy, music, the visual arts, gender and queer theory, studies in race and ethnicity. A Comparative Literature major prepares a student to become a better reader and interpreter of literature, through enhanced examination of texts and the development of a critical vocabulary with which to discuss them. Attention to verbal expression and interpretive argument serves students who plan to proceed into careers requiring strong language and communication skills, as well as deeper cross-cultural knowledge of the world.

Learning Outcomes (Undergraduate)

The department expects undergraduate majors in the program to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes. These learning outcomes are used in evaluating students and the department's undergraduate program. Students are expected to demonstrate:

the ability to interpret a literary text in a non-native language or to compare literary texts from different linguistic traditions, which may be read in translation.

a self-reflective understanding of the critical process necessary to read and understand texts.

skills in writing effectively about literature.

skills in oral communication and public speaking about literature.

Graduate Programs in Comparative Literature

The department offers a Doctor of Philosophy and a Ph.D. minor in Comparative Literature.

Learning Outcomes (Graduate)

Through completion of advanced course work and rigorous skills training, the doctoral program prepares students to

make original contributions to the knowledge of Comparative Literature and to interpret and present the results of such research,

teach literary analysis and interpretation at all levels with broad historical, cultural and linguistic understanding, and

apply such analysis, interpretation and understanding to a range of fields and vocations.

Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature

The major in Comparative Literature requires students to enroll in a set of core courses offered by the department, to complete electives in the department, and to enroll in additional literature courses, or other courses approved by the Chair of Undergraduate Studies, offered by other departments. This flexibility to combine literature courses from several departments and to address literature from multiple traditions is the hallmark of the Comparative Literature major. Students may count courses which read literature in translation; however, students, and especially those planning to pursue graduate study in Comparative Literature, are encouraged to develop a command of non-native languages.

Declaring the Major

Students declare the major in Comparative Literature through Axess. Students should meet with the Chair of Undergraduate Studies to discuss appropriate courses and options within the major, and to plan the course of study. Majors are also urged to attend department events such as public talks and conferences.

Advising

Students majoring in Comparative Literature should consult with the Chair of Undergraduate Studies at least once a quarter. The chair monitors progress to completion of the degree. Students are also encouraged to develop relationships with other faculty members who may act as mentors.

Overseas Campuses and Abroad Programs

The Department of Comparative Literature encourages time abroad, both for increased proficiency in language and the opportunity for advanced course work. Course work done at campuses other than Stanford is counted toward the major at the discretion of the Chair of Undergraduate Studies and is contingent upon the Office of the University Registrar's approval of transfer credit. To that end, students abroad are advised to save syllabi, notes, papers, and correspondence.

Degree Requirements

All majors in Comparative Literature (including honors) are required to complete the following requirements. All courses applied to the major must be taken for a letter grade, and a grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 or better must be achieved in each core course.

COMPLIT 101 What Comparative Literature Is. This gateway to the major is normally taken by the end of sophomore year. It provides an introduction to literature and its distinctions from other modes of linguistic expression, and a fundamental set of interpretive skills. This course fulfills the Writing in the Major requirement.

Core Courses (5 units each)
Students should complete these courses as soon as possible. Each course draws on examples from multiple traditions to ask questions about the logic of the individual genres.

COMPLIT 199 Senior Seminar: The Pleasures of Reading. This senior seminar is designed as a culmination to the course of study while providing reflection on the nature of the discipline. Topics vary.

Electives: Majors must complete at least 40 units of electives. 15 of the 40 units must be COMPLIT courses. The remaining courses should form a coherent intellectual focus requiring approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies and may be drawn from Comparative Literature offerings, from other literature departments, or from other fields of interdisciplinary relevance. Up to 10 units of Thinking Matters or SLE courses may be counted towards the elective requirement. Electives are subject to adviser consultation and approval.

Total unit load: Students must complete course work for a total of at least 65 units.

Philosophical and Literary Thought

Undergraduates may major in Comparative Literature and Philosophy. The Philosophy specification is not declared in Axess and does not appear on either the transcript or the diploma. Students in this option take courses alongside students from other departments that also have specialized options associated with the program for the study of Philosophical and Literary Thought. Each student in this option is assigned an adviser in Comparative Literature, and student schedules and courses of study must be approved in writing by the advisor, the Chair of Undergraduate Studies of Comparative Literature, and the Chair of Undergraduate Studies of the program. See the Philosophy + Literature @ Stanford web site.

A total of 65 units must be completed for this option, including the following requirements:

Seven courses taught by Comparative Literature faculty. Of the seven, the following five (5 units each) are required courses:

History of Philosophy (ca. 8 units): Two courses in the history of philosophy, numbered above PHIL 100.

Related Courses (ca. 8 units): Two upper division courses relevant to the study of philosophy and literature as identified by the committee in charge of the program. A list of approved courses is available from the undergraduate advisor of the program in philosophical and literary thought.

One course, typically in translation, in a literature distant from that of the student's concentration and offering an outside perspective on that literary tradition.

Capstone Seminar (ca. 4 units): In addition to COMPLIT 199 Senior Seminar: The Pleasures of Reading, students take a capstone seminar of relevance to philosophy and literature approved by the undergraduate adviser of the program in philosophical and literary thought. The student's choice of a capstone seminar must be approved in writing by the Chair of Undergraduate Studies of Comparative Literature and by the Chair of Undergraduate Studies of the program. Offered this year are:

Seminar Paper Requirement: Students must write at least one seminar paper that is interdisciplinary in nature. This paper brings together material from courses taken in philosophy and literature, and may be an honors paper (see below), an individual research paper (developed through independent work with a faculty member), or a paper integrating materials developed for two separate courses (by arrangement with the two instructors). Though it may draw on previous course work, the paper must be an original composition, 18-20 pages in length. It must be submitted to the Chair of Undergraduate Studies and receive approval no later than the end of Winter Quarter in the fourth year of study.

At least two of the courses counted toward requirements 1, 2, 7, 8, and 9 must be taught by Comparative Literature faculty. Transfer units may not normally be used to satisfy requirements 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9. Units devoted to acquiring language proficiency are not counted toward the 65-unit requirement.

Honors Program

Comparative Literature majors with an overall grade point average (GPA) of 3.3 or above, and who maintain a 3.5 (GPA) in major courses, are eligible to participate in the DLCL's honors program. Prospective honors students must choose a senior thesis adviser from among their home department's regular faculty, in their junior year, preferably by March 1, but no later than May 1. During Spring Quarter of the junior year, a student interested in the honors program should consult with the Chair of Undergraduate Studies of their home department to submit a thesis proposal (2-5 pages), DLCL Honors application and an outline of planned course work for their senior year.

Honors papers vary considerably in length as a function of their topic, historical scope, and methodology. They may make use of previous work developed in seminars and courses, but display an enhanced comparative or theoretical scope. Quality rather than quantity is the key criterion. Honors theses range from 40-90 pages not including bibliography and notes. Please consult the DLCL Honors Handbook for more details on declaring and completing the honors thesis.

Honors students are encouraged to participate in the honors college hosted by Bing Honors College and coordinated by the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages. The honors college is offered at the end of the summer, during the weeks directly preceding the start of the academic year, and is designed to help students develop their honors thesis projects. Applications must be submitted through the Bing program. For more information, view the Bing Honors website.

Enrollment: A minimum of 10 units total, described below, and a completed thesis is required. Honors essays are due to the thesis adviser no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 15th of the terminal year. If an essay is found deserving of a grade of 'A-' of better by the thesis adviser, honors are granted at the time of graduation.

Spring Quarter of the junior year (optional): DLCL 189C Honors Thesis Seminar, 2-4 units S/NC, under the primary thesis adviser. Drafting or revision of the thesis proposal. The proposal is reviewed by the Chair of Undergraduate Studies and the Director of the department and will be approved or returned for submission.

Winter Quarter of the senior year (required): DLCL 189B Honors Thesis Seminar, 2-4 units letter grade, under the primary thesis adviser. Focus is on writing under guidance of primary adviser. The letter grade will determine if honors is granted or not.

Spring quarter of the senior year (option; mandatory if not taken during junior year): DLCL 189C Honors Thesis Seminar, 2-4 units S/NC, under the primary thesis adviser. Honors essays are due to the thesis adviser and Student Service Officer no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 15th of the terminal year.

Joint Major Program: Comparative Literature and Computer Science

The joint major program (JMP), authorized by the Academic Senate for a pilot period of six years beginning in 2014-15, permits students to major in both Computer Science and one of ten Humanities majors. See the "Joint Major Program" section of this bulletin for a description of University requirements for the JMP. See also the Undergraduate Advising and Research JMP web site and its associated FAQs.

Students completing the JMP receive a B.A.S. (Bachelor of Arts and Science).

Because the JMP is new and experimental, changes to procedures may occur; students are advised to check the relevant section of the bulletin periodically.

Comparative Literature Major Requirements in the Joint Major Program

Degree Requirements

All majors in Comparative Literature (including honors) are required to complete the following requirements. All courses applied to the major must be taken for a letter grade, and a grade of 'C' or better must be achieved in each core course.

COMPLIT 101 What is Comparative Literature?. This gateway to the major is normally taken by the end of sophomore year. It provides an introduction to literature and its distinctions from other modes of linguistic expression, and a fundamental set of interpretive skills. This course fulfills the Writing in the Major requirement.

Core Courses (5 units each)
Students should complete these courses as soon as possible. Each course draws on examples from multiple traditions to ask questions about the logic of the individual genres.

3. COMPLIT 199 Senior Seminar: The Pleasures of Reading. This senior seminar is designed as a culmination to the course of study while providing reflection on the nature of the discipline. Topics vary.

4. Capstone Project: Senior year, the student enrolls in a 2-unit independent study DLCL 299 with a DLCL faculty member. The faculty member advising this project must sign off on this description. In order to have it approved as their capstone Complit and Computer Science project, the student must submit a description of the project to the Chair of Undergraduate Studies in Complit by May 15 of their junior year or no later than October 1 of their senior year.

5. Electives: Majors must complete at least 28 units of electives. 15 of the 28 units must be COMPLIT courses. The remaining courses should form a coherent intellectual focus requiring approval from the Chair of Undergraduate Studies and may be drawn from Comparative Literature offerings, from other literature departments, or from other fields of interdisciplinary relevance. Up to 10 units of Thinking Matters or SLE courses may be counted towards the elective requirement. Electives are subject to adviser consultation and approval.

Transcript and Diploma

Students completing a joint major graduate with a B.A.S. degree. The two majors are identified on one diploma separated by a hyphen. There will be a notation indicating that the student has completed a "Joint Major". The two majors are identified on the transcript with a notation indicating that the student has completed a "Joint Major".

Minor in Comparative Literature

The undergraduate minor in Comparative Literature represents an abbreviated version of the major. It is designed for students who are unable to pursue the major, but who nonetheless seek an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of literature. Plans for the minor should be discussed with the Chair of Undergraduate Studies. All courses must be taken for a letter grade. Up to 5 units of SLE or Independent Study, may count towards one of the four additional Comparative Literature courses with approval from the Chair of Undergraduate Studies. Requirements for the minor in Comparative Literature include:

Minor in Modern Languages

The Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages offers an undergraduate minor in Modern Languages. This minor draws on literature and language courses offered in this and other literature departments. See the "Literatures, Cultures, and Languages" section of this bulletin for requirements.

Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature

University requirements for the Ph.D. are described in the "Graduate Degrees" section of this bulletin.

The Ph.D. program is designed for students whose linguistic background, breadth of interest in literature, and curiosity about the problems of literary scholarship and theory (including the relation of literature to other disciplines) make this program more appropriate to their needs than the Ph.D. in one of the individual literatures. Students take courses in at least three literatures (one may be that of the native language), to be studied in the original. The program is designed to encourage familiarity with the major approaches to literary study prevailing today.

Before starting graduate work at Stanford, students should have completed an undergraduate program with a strong background in one literature and some work in a second literature studied in the original language. Since the program demands an advanced knowledge of two non-native languages and a reading knowledge of a third non-native language, students should at the time of application have an advanced enough knowledge of one of the three to take graduate-level courses in that language when they enter the program. They should be making enough progress in the study of a second language to enable them to take graduate courses in that language not later than the beginning of the second year, and earlier if possible. Language courses at the 100- or 200- level may be taken with approval from the Chair of the department or the Chair of Graduate Studies. Applicants are expected to take an intensive course in the third language before entrance.

Students are admitted under a financial plan which attempts to integrate financial support and completion of residence requirements with their training as prospective university teachers. Tenure as a Ph.D. student, assuming satisfactory academic progress, is for a maximum of five years.

Application Procedures

Competition for entrance into the program is extremely keen. The program is kept small so that students have as much opportunity as possible to work closely with faculty throughout the period of study. Applicants should review all course and exam requirements, advancement requirements, and teaching obligations carefully before applying to the program. Because of the special nature of comparative literary studies, the statement of purpose included in the application for admission must contain the following information:

A detailed description of the applicant's present degree of proficiency in each of the languages studied, indicating the languages in which the applicant is prepared to do graduate work at present and outlining plans to meet additional language requirements of the program.

A description of the applicant's area of interest (for instance, theoretical problems, genres, periods) within literary study and the reasons for finding comparative literature more suitable to his or her needs than the study of a single literature. Applicants should also indicate their most likely prospective primary field, including the literatures on which they intend to concentrate.

An explanation of how the applicant’s undergraduate education has prepared them for work in our program. If there are any gaps in the applicant’s preparation, they should explain how they plan to address those gaps.

The applicant’s specific reasons for wishing to study in our department of Comparative Literature.

All applicants should arrange to have the results of the general section of the Graduate Record Examination sent to Stanford University, ETS code 4704.

A letter of recommendation that focuses on the applicant's language skills, or a current ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) certificate, or a critical paper written in a non-native language.

Recommendations should, if possible, come from faculty in at least two of the literatures in which the student proposes to work.

Applicants must submit a copy of an undergraduate term paper which they consider representative of their best work, preferably containing a comparative analysis.

Degree Requirements

Residence

A candidate for the Ph.D. degree must complete three years (nine quarters) of full-time work, or the equivalent, in graduate study beyond the B.A. degree. The student must take 135 units of graduate work, in addition to the doctoral dissertation. At least three consecutive quarters of course work must be taken at Stanford.

Languages

Students must know three non-native languages, two of them sufficiently to qualify for graduate courses in these languages and the third sufficiently to demonstrate the ability to read a major author in this language. Only the third language may be certified by examination. The other two are certified by graduate-level course work specified below. Language preparation must be sufficient to support graduate-level course work in at least one language during the first year and in the second language during the second year. Students must demonstrate a reading knowledge of the third non-native language no later than the beginning of the third year.

Literatures made up of works written in the same language (such as Spanish and Latin American) are counted as one. One of the student's three literatures usually is designated as the primary field, the other two as secondary fields, although some students may offer two literatures at the primary level (six or more graduate courses).

Teaching

Students, whatever their sources of financial support, are ordinarily required to undertake a total of five quarters of supervised apprenticeships and teaching at half time. Students must complete whatever pedagogy courses are required by the departments in which they teach. The department's minimum teaching requirement is a total of three quarters.

Minimum Course Requirements

Students are advised that the range and depth of preparation necessary to support quality work on the dissertation, as well as demands in the present professional marketplace for coverage of both traditional and interdisciplinary areas of knowledge, render these requirements as bare minimums. The following are required:

A sufficient number of courses (six or more) in the student's primary field to assure knowledge of the basic works in one national literature from its beginnings until the present.

At least two additional complementary courses, with most of the reading in the original, in each of two different national literatures. Students whose primary field is a non-native language are required to take two courses in one additional literature not their own.

Minimum course requirements must be completed before the student is scheduled to take the University oral examination. These requirements are kept to a minimum so that students have sufficient opportunity to seek out new areas of interest. A course is an offering of 3-5 units. Independent study may take the place of up to two of the required courses, but no more; classroom work with faculty and other students is central to the program. The principal conditions for continued registration of a graduate student are the timely and satisfactory completion of the university, department, and program requirements for the degree, and fulfillment of minimum progress requirements. Failure to meet these requirements results in corrective measures which may include a written warning, academic probation, and/or the possible release from the program.

Dissertation Reading Committee

Every doctoral dissertation is read and approved by the three members of the student’s doctoral dissertation reading committee. The doctoral dissertation reading committee consists of the principal dissertation adviser and, typically, two other readers. The doctoral dissertation reading committee must have three members and may not have more than five members. At least one member must be from the student’s major department. Normally, all committee members are members of the Stanford University Academic Council or are emeritus Academic Council members. The student's department chair may, in some cases, approve the appointment of a reader who is not a current or emeritus member of the Academic Council, if that person is particularly well qualified to consult on the dissertation topic and holds a Ph.D. or equivalent foreign degree. Former Stanford Academic Council members and non-Academic Council members may thus, on occasion, serve on a reading committee. A non-Academic Council member (including former Academic Council members) may replace only one of three required members of dissertation reading committees. If the reading committee has four or five members, at least three members (comprising the majority) must be current or emeritus members of the Academic Council.

Examinations

Three examinations are required. The first two are one-hour exams. The first of these two is taken at the end of the student’s first year of study; the second is taken at the start of the second year. Students should meet with the members of the exam committee to discuss their plans for the exams. The first of these is on literary genre, designed to demonstrate the student's knowledge of a substantial number of literary works in a single genre, ranged over several centuries and over at least three national literatures. This exam is also designed to demonstrate the student's grasp of the theoretical problems involved in his or her choice of genre and in the matter of genre in general. The second of these examinations is on literary theory and criticism, designed to demonstrate the student's knowledge of a particular problem in the history of literary theory and criticism, or the student's ability to develop a particular theoretical position. In either case, this exam should demonstrate wide reading in theoretical and critical texts from a variety of periods. The third and last is the University oral examination, which covers a literary period, to consist of in-depth knowledge of a period of approximately a century in three or more literatures with primary emphasis on a single national literature or, in occasional cases, two national literatures.

First One-Hour Examination: The genre exam is generally administered the second week of April of the student's first year. All first-year students take the exam during the same period, with an examination committee established by the department. Exam lists should be approved by the Chair of Graduate Studies well in advance of the exam. Students are urged to focus on poetry, drama, or the novel or narrative, combining core recommendations from the department with selections from their individual areas of concentration. Any student who does not pass the exam has the opportunity to retake the exam the second week of May of the same quarter. Students who do not pass this exam a second time may be dismissed from the program.

Second One-Hour Examination: The theory exam is administered the Autumn Quarter of the student's second year. All second-year students take the exam during the same period, with an examination committee established by the department. Exam lists should be approved by the Chair of Graduate Studies well in advance of the exam. Any student who does not pass the exam has the opportunity to retake the exam the second week of the Winter Quarter. Students who do not pass this exam a second time may be dismissed from the program.

University Oral Examination: Students are required to take this exam during the Autumn Quarter of their third year. The oral exam is individually scheduled, with a committee established by the student in consultation with the Chair of Graduate Studies. The reading list covers chiefly the major literary texts of a period of approximately one hundred years but may also include some studies of intellectual backgrounds and modern critical discussions of the period. Students must demonstrate a grasp of how to discuss and define this period as well as the concept of periods in general. This examination is not to be on the dissertation topic, on a single genre, or on current criticism, but rather on a multiplicity of texts from the period. Students whose course work combines an ancient with a modern literature have the option of dividing the period sections into two wholly separate periods.

Qualifying Procedures

Candidacy

Admission to candidacy is an important decision grounded in an overall assessment of a student’s ability to successfully complete the PhD program. Per University policy, students are expected to complete department qualifying procedures and apply for candidacy by the end of the second year in residence. In reviewing a student for admission to candidacy, the faculty considers a student’s academic progress including but not limited to: advanced language proficiency, coursework, performance on the Qualifying Exam (Genre Exam), and successful completion of teaching and research assistantships. A student must also have completed at least 3 units of work with each of 4 Stanford faculty members prior to consideration for candidacy. In addition to successful completion of department prerequisites, a student is only admitted to candidacy if the faculty makes the judgment that the student has the potential to successfully complete the requirements of the degree program. Candidacy is determined by faculty vote. Failure to advance to candidacy results in the dismissal of the student from the doctoral program. Candidacy is valid for five years and students are required to maintain active candidacy through conferral of the doctoral degree. All requirements for the degree must be completed before candidacy expires. The Department of Comparative Literature conducts regular reviews of each student’s academic performance, both prior to and following successful admission to candidacy. Failure to make satisfactory progress to degree may result in dismissal from the doctoral program. Additional information about University candidacy policy is available in the Bulletin and GAP.

Yearly Review

The faculty provide students with timely and constructive feedback on their progress toward the Ph.D. In order to evaluate students' progress and to identify potential problem areas, the department's faculty reviews the academic progress of each student at the end of the academic year. The yearly reviews are primarily intended to identify developing problems that could impede progress. In most cases, students are simply given constructive feedback, but if more serious concerns warrant, a student may be placed on probation with specific guidelines for addressing the problems detected. Possible outcomes of the yearly review include (1) continuation of the student in good standing, or (2) placing the student on probation, with specific guidelines for the period on probation and the steps to be taken in order to be returned to good standing. For students on probation at this point (or at any other subsequent points), possible outcomes of a review include: (1) restoration to good standing; or (2) continued probation, again with guidelines for necessary remedial steps; or (3) termination from the program. Students leaving the program at the end of the first or second year are usually allowed to complete the requirements to receive an M.A. degree, if this does not involve additional residency or financial support.

Prospectus Colloquium

The prospectus colloquium normally takes place during the spring of the third year. The student should furnish the committee with a five-page prospectus, 20-page draft of a chapter, and working bibliography well before the colloquium. The colloquium lasts one hour, begins with a brief introduction to the dissertation prospectus by the student lasting no more than five minutes, and consists of a discussion of the prospectus by the student and the three readers of the dissertation. At the end of the hour, the faculty readers vote on the outcome of the colloquium. If the outcome is favorable (by majority vote), the student is free to proceed with work on the dissertation. If the proposal is found to be unsatisfactory (by majority vote), the dissertation readers may ask the student to revise and resubmit the dissertation prospectus and to schedule a second colloquium.

The prospectus must be prepared in close consultation with the dissertation adviser during the months preceding the colloquium. It must be submitted in its final form to the readers no later than one week before the colloquium. A prospectus should not exceed ten double spaced pages, in addition to which it should include a working bibliography of primary and secondary sources. It should offer a synthetic overview of the dissertation, describe its methodology and the project's relation to prior scholarship on the topic, and lay out a complete chapter by chapter plan.

It is the student's responsibility to schedule the colloquium no later than the first half of the quarter after that quarter in which the student passed the University Oral Examination. The student should arrange the date and time in consultation with the department administrator and with the three examiners. The department administrator schedules an appropriate room for the colloquium.

Members of the dissertation reading committee are ordinarily drawn from the University oral examination committee.

Ph.D. Minor in Comparative Literature

This minor is designed for students working toward the Ph.D. in the various foreign language departments. Students working toward the Ph.D. in English are directed to the program in English and Comparative Literature described among the Department of English offerings. Students must have:

A knowledge of at least two foreign languages, one of them sufficient to qualify for graduate-level courses in that language, the second sufficient to read a major author in the original language.

A minimum of six graduate courses, of which three must be in the department of the second literature and three in the Department of Comparative Literature, the latter to include a seminar in literary theory or criticism. At least two of the three courses in comparative literature should originate in a department other than the one in which the student is completing the degree. Except for students in the Asian languages, students must choose a second literature outside the department of their major literature.

Courses

Preference to freshmen. The problem of performance including the performance of gender through the plays of Shakespeare. In-class performances by students of scenes from plays. The history of theatrical performance. Sources include filmed versions of plays, and readings on the history of gender, gender performance, and transvestite theater.

COMPLIT 10SC. The Cult of Happiness: Pursuing the Good Life in America and China. 2 Units.

The 2006 film Pursuit of Happyness, an unabashed celebration of the American Dream, was enthusiastically embraced by Chinese audiences. It seems that the pursuit of happiness has become truly globalized, even as the American Dream is slipping away for many. Are Americans still convinced that their conception of happiness is a self-evident truth and a universal gospel? Is there anything that Americans might learn about what it means to live a good life from not only the distant past, but also cultures in which happiness is conceptualized and sought after very differently? This course takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the question of happiness and invites undergraduate students to reflect on its relationship to virtue, wisdom, health, love, prosperity, justice, and solidarity. Giving equal weight to Chinese and Western sources, it seeks to defamiliarize some of the most deeply held ideas and values in American society through the lens of cross-cultural inquiry.n nDuring the summer, students will read a selection of novels, memoirs, and reflections by philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists. In September, we will review these texts and place them alongside movies, short fiction, news stories, and social commentary while we interrogate the chimera of happiness. In addition to daily seminars, we will experiment with meditation, short-form life writing, and service learning with participation of local elders. Furthermore, there will be at least three guest speakers, including a prominent Confucian philosopher and a Stanford alum now running a happiness-related enterprise. nSophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 7, 2015. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.
Same as: CHINGEN 10SC

COMPLIT 11Q. Shakespeare, Playing, Gender. 3 Units.

Preference to sophomores. Focus is on several of the best and lesser known plays of Shakespeare, on theatrical and other kinds of playing, and on ambiguities of both gender and playing gender.

COMPLIT 11SC. Worlds (No Longer) Apart. 2 Units.

What (if anything) do supermall shoppers in the Philippines, a Filipino taxi driver in Paris, and television viewers in Nepal have to do with a legal case in Canada, two young Japanese on a pilgrimage to Graceland, and a South Asian lawyer/liquor store owner trying to reclaim his property in Uganda from where he lives, in Mississippi?nn This course uses literary narratives, films, and historical research to examine new textures of contemporary life, where "borders" seem hard-pressed to contain culture. Texts include Pico Iyer, Video Night in Kathmandu, Mira Nair's film Mississippi Masala, and M.G. Vassanji, No New Land. New forms of identity have emerged that reflect the cultural changes that have accompanied such movements. Nevertheless, we will not idealize such phenomena either; we will want also to carefully observe the binding power of nations. The result will be a finer-tuned sense of "globalization" and the "local" and the "global." nn The course emphasizes creative thinking and discussion. Students are expected to do the reading and be well prepared for every session with not only questions, but tentative answers. Each student will participate in one group presentation as their final project.

COMPLIT 13SC. Arabic in America: Language Immersion. 2 Units.

Do you speak Arabic at home? Are you studying Arabic at Stanford? Have you done a year of Arabic study elsewhere? If you answer yes to any one of these questions then "Arabic in America: Language Immersion" might be for you. nnOur intensive course is designed to improve your command of Arabic while living in an active community of Arabic speakers and learners. We will be talking about films, poetry, politics, religion, gender and much more--all the while practicing how to talk to people, read newspapers, recite poetry, write emails, all with the goal of communicating better in Arabic. nnYour three teachers will share their knowledge and love of Arabic literature, culture, and grammar with you while we engage with all kinds of Arabic, from the Quran and Pre-Islamic poetry to the colloquial Arabic spoken at barbecues (we will be grilling!). We will also be inviting guest speakers and taking class field trips to the Ba'th Party archives in the Hoover Library, mosques and churches in the Bay Area, Middle Eastern restaurants, and more. Application required, due noon, April 7, 2015. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

COMPLIT 31SI. What is Neoconservatism? The Movement's History and Ideas. 2 Units.

Its thinking from its communist roots, through the changes of the 60s, the rise of conservatism in the 80s, and the invasion of Iraq. Readings include Irving Kristol, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Daniel P. Moynihan, and David Brooks. Guest lecturers from supporters and critics.

COMPLIT 37Q. Zionism and the Novel. 4 Units.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Zionism emerged as a political movement to establish a national homeland for the Jews, eventually leading to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. This seminar uses novels to explore the changes in Zionism, the roots of the conflict in the Middle East, and the potentials for the future. We will take a close look at novels by Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, in order to understand multiple perspectives, and we will also consider works by authors from the North America and from Europe.
Same as: JEWISHST 37Q

COMPLIT 38Q. Ethics of Jihad. 4 Units.

Why choose jihad? An introduction to Islamic ethics. Focus on ways in which people have chosen, rejected, or redefined jihad. Topics include jihad in the age of 1001 Nights, feminist jihad, jihad in Africa, al-Qaida and Hamas, and the hashtag #MyJihad. All readings and discussion in English.

Censorship, Borges tells us, is the mother of metaphors. The Islamic regime in Iran censors all aethetic production in the country. But Iranian dissident artists, from film-makers and fiction writers to composers in a thriving under-ground musical scene, have cleverly found ways to fight these draconian measures. They have developed an impressive body of work that is as sophisticated in style as it is rich in its discourse of democracy and dissent. The purpose of the seminar is to understand the aesthetic tropes of dissent in Iran, and the social and theological roots of rules of censorship. Masterpieces of post-revolutionary film, fiction, and music will be discussed in the context of tumultuous history of dissent in Islamic Iran.
Same as: INTNLREL 71Q

COMPLIT 41N. Borderlands of Literature and Culture. 3-4 Units.

Rather than try to examine the whole of such an extensive body of work by artists of Mexican descent living in Mexico and the United States, the focus will be on the transnational themes of border thinking, memory, and identity (both personal and collective). Looking at the foundational poetry, auto-ethnographies, and narratives by Américo Paredes and Gloria Anzaldúa and how their literary and ethnographic work laid the groundwork for subsequent imaginings in the narratives, poetry, and theory of border thinking and writing. We will explore the trans-frontier cultural conditions under which imaginative literary texts are produced, disseminated, and received. We will consider not only the historical transnational experiences that inform these borderlands texts but the potential futures of Mexico and the United States they imagine.

COMPLIT 41Q. Ethnicity and Literature. 5 Units.

Preference to sophomores. What is meant by ethnic literature? How is ethnic writing different from non-ethnic writing, or is there such a thing as either? How does ethnicity as an analytic perspective affect the way literature is read by ethnic peoples? Articles and works of fiction; films on ethnic literature and cultural politics. How ethnic literature represents the nexus of social, historical, political, and personal issues.

COMPLIT 51Q. Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity. 4 Units.

We may "know" "who" we "are," but we are, after all, social creatures. How does our sense of self interact with those around us? How does literature provide a particular medium for not only self expression, but also for meditations on what goes into the construction of "the Self"? After all, don't we tell stories in response to the question, "who are you"? Besides a list of nouns and names and attributes, we give our lives flesh and blood in telling how we process the world. Our course focuses in particular on this question--Does this universal issue ("who am I") become skewed differently when we add a qualifier before it, like "ethnic"?.
Same as: AMSTUD 51Q, CSRE 51Q

COMPLIT 57. Human Rights and World Literature. 5 Units.

Human rights may be universal, but each appeal comes from a specific location with its own historical, social, and cultural context. This summer we will turn to literary narratives and films from a wide number of global locations to help us understand human rights; each story taps into fundamental beliefs about justice and ethics, from an eminently human and personal point of view. What does it mean not to have access to water, education, free speech, for example?nnThis course has two components. The first will be a set of readings on the history and ethos of modern human rights. These readings will come from philosophy, history, political theory. The second, and major component is comprised of novels and films that come from different locations in the world, each telling a compelling story. nnWe will come away from this class with a good introduction to human rights history and philosophy and a set of insights into a variety of imaginative perspectives on human rights issues from different global locations.nnReadings include:nAmnesty International, Freedom: Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human RightsnAndrew Clapman, Human Rights: A Very Short IntroductionnJames Dawes, That the World May KnownWalter Echo-Hawk, In the Light of JusticenAmitav Ghosh, The Hungry TidenBessie Head, MarunUrsula LeGuin, The Word for World is Forest.

COMPLIT 70N. Animal Planet and the Romance of the Species. 3-4 Units.

Preference to freshmen.This course considers a variety of animal characters in Chinese and Western literatures as potent symbols of cultural values and dynamic sites of ethical reasoning. What does pervasive animal imagery tell us about how we relate to the world and our neighbors? How do animals define the frontiers of humanity and mediate notions of civilization and culture? How do culture, institutions, and political economy shape concepts of human rights and animal welfare? And, above all, what does it mean to be human in the pluralistic and planetary 21st century?.
Same as: CHINGEN 70N

COMPLIT 101. What Comparative Literature Is. 5 Units.

Introduction (suitable for freshmen and seniors) to three themes: (1) How to Do Theory (with G.F.W. Hegel). (2) The Glittering Arab World (with Ahmad Faris Shidyaq). (3) 21st Century Genders (with Judith Butler). Fulfills the Writing in the Major Requirement. Gateway to the Comparative Literature Major.

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers. (Meets Writing-in-the-Major requirement).
Same as: COMPLIT 311C, GERMAN 190, GERMAN 390, JEWISHST 147, JEWISHST 349

COMPLIT 112. Oscar Wilde and the French Decadents. 3-5 Units.

Close reading of Oscar Wilde's work together with major texts and authors of 19th-century French Decadence, including Symbolism, l'art pour l'art, and early Modernism. Points of contact between Wilde and avant-garde Paris salons; provocative, creative intersections between (homo)erotic and aesthetic styles, transgression; literary and cultural developments from Baudelaire to Mallarmé, Huysmans, Flaubert, Rachilde, Lorrain, and Proust compared with Wilde¿s Salomé, Picture of Dorian Gray, and critical writings; relevant historical and philosophical contexts. All readings in English; all student levels welcome.
Same as: COMPLIT 312, FRENCH 112, FRENCH 312

COMPLIT 114. Masterpieces: Kafka. 3-5 Units.

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers.
Same as: GERMAN 150, JEWISHST 145

COMPLIT 115. Nabokov in the Transnational Context. 3-5 Units.

Nabokov's techniques of migration and camouflage as he inhabits the literary and historical contexts of St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, America, and Switzerland. His early and late stories, last Russian novel "The Gift," "Lolita" (the novel and screenplay), and "Pale Fire." Readings in English. Russian speakers will be encouraged to read Russian texts in original.
Same as: COMPLIT 315, SLAVIC 156, SLAVIC 356

COMPLIT 121. Poems, Poetry, Worlds. 5 Units.

What is poetry? How does it speak in many voices to questions of history, society, and personal experience? Why does it matter? The reading and interpretation of poetry in crosscultural comparison as experience, invention, form, sound, knowledge, and part of the world. Readings include: classical Chinese poetry, English Romantic poetry, and modern Arabic, American, Brazilian, Japanese, German, Spanish poetry, with specific attention to landscape, terrain, the environment, and the role of the poet.

An introduction to the "theatrical" dimensions of literature in different cultures based on a view of the staging arts as a specific segment within phenomena of "performance". Documentation and discussions of the history of western drama as a central axis within the debate about the cultural status of other forms of performance art that are normally not culturally canonized within this genre (eg. sports).

COMPLIT 123. The Novel, the Global South. 5 Units.

Literary inventiveness and social significance of novelistic forms from the Great Depression to the present.
Same as: ENGLISH 184

Aims to make present and accessible, to our early 21st-century experience, convergences and differences between medieval Persian and medieval European love poetry. Poetry will be dealt with as a discursive and institutional means through which it is possible to make present and tangible that which is absent -- both in space and time. If we accept that medieval Persian and European love poetry conjured up moods of homo- and heteroerotic desire for contemporary audiences, then this desire can also become present for us today through a close reading of those same texts.

COMPLIT 125A. The Gothic Novel. 5 Units.

The Gothic novel and its relatives from its invention by Walpole in The Castle of Otranto of 1764. Readings include: Northanger Abbey, The Italian, The Monk, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, and Dracula. What defines the Gothic as it evolves from one specific novel to a mode that makes its way into a range of fictional types?.

COMPLIT 132A. Dynasties, Dictators and Democrats: History and Politics in Germany. 3-5 Units.

Key moments in German history through documents: personal accounts, political speeches and texts, and literary works. The course begins with the Prussian monarchy and proceeds to the crisis years of the French Revolution. Documents from the 1848 revolution and the age of Bismarck and German unification follow. World War I and its impact on Germany, including the rise of Hitler, as well as the aftermath, divided Germany in the Cold War through the fall of the Berlin Wall. Taught in German.
Same as: GERMAN 132

COMPLIT 133. Gender and Modernism. 3-5 Units.

Gender and sexuality in trans-Atlantic modernist literature and culture from the 1880s-1930s. Topics include the 19th-century culture wars and the figures of the dandy and the New Woman; modernist critiques of Enlightenment rationality; impact of World War I on gender roles; gender and the rise of modern consumer culture, fashion, design; the modernist metropolis and gender/sexuality; the avant-garde and gender; literary first-wave feminism; homoerotic modernism; modernism in the context of current theories of gender and sexuality.
Same as: COMPLIT 333

Events, arts, films, and operas of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Analysis of political passion, aesthetics, and psychology of mass movements. Places the Cultural Revolution in the long-range context of art, social movements, and politics. Chinese language is not required.
Same as: CHINLIT 190, CHINLIT 290

COMPLIT 138A. Introduction to Modern Japanese Literature and Culture. 3-4 Units.

This class introduces key literary texts from Japan's modern era (1868-present), locating these works in the larger political, social, and cultural trends of the period. Primary texts include: Futabatei Shimei's Floating Clouds, Higuchi Ichiyô's Child's Play, Natsume Sôseki's Kokoro, Kobayashi Takiji's Cannery Boat, Ôe Kenzaburô's The Catch, and Yoshimoto Banana's Kitchen. Examination of these literary works will be contextualized within larger political trends (e.g., the modernization program of the Meiji regime, the policies of Japan's wartime government, and postwar Japanese responses to the cold war), social developments (e.g., changing notions of social class, the women's rights movement, and the social effects of the postwar economic expansion), and cultural movements (e.g., literary reform movement of the 1890s, modernism of the 1920s and 30s, and postmodernism of the 1980s). The goal of the class is to use literary texts as a point of entry to understand the grand narrative of Japan's journey from its tentative re-entry into the international community in the 1850s, through the cataclysm of the Pacific War, to the remarkable prosperity of the bubble years in the 1980s.
Same as: JAPANGEN 138, JAPANGEN 238

COMPLIT 141A. The Meaning of Arabic Literature: a seminar investigation into the nebulous concept of adab. 3-5 Units.

An investigation into the concept of literature in mediaeval Arabic. Was there a mediaeval Arabic way of thinking? We look to develop a translation for the word "adab," a concept that dominated mediaeval Arabic intellectual culture, and is related in some ways to what we mean today when we use the word literature. Our core text is a literary anthology from the 900s in Iraq and we try, together, to work out what literature meant for the author and his contemporaries. Readings, assignments and, class discussion all in English.

COMPLIT 142. The Literature of the Americas. 5 Units.

A wide-ranging overview of the literatures of the Americas inncomparative perspective, emphasizing continuities and crises that are common to North American, Central American, and South American literatures as well as the distinctive national and cultural elements of a diverse array of primary works. Topics include the definitions of such concepts as empire and colonialism, the encounters between worldviews of European and indigenous peoples, the emergence of creole and racially mixed populations, slavery, the New World voice, myths of America as paradise or utopia, the coming of modernism, twentieth-century avant-gardes, and distinctive modern episodes--the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, magic realism, Noigandres--in unaccustomed conversation with each other.
Same as: AMSTUD 142, CSRE 142, ENGLISH 172E

COMPLIT 142B. Translating Japan, Translating the West. 3-4 Units.

Translation lies at the heart of all intercultural exchange. This course introduces students to the specific ways in which translation has shaped the image of Japan in the West, the image of the West in Japan, and Japan's self-image in the modern period. What texts and concepts were translated by each side, how, and to what effect? No prior knowledge of Japanese language necessary.
Same as: JAPANGEN 121, JAPANGEN 221

An introduction to the theme of romantic love in Turkish literature, with particular attention to key classical and contemporary works that influenced the development of the Turkish literary tradition. Topics include close reading and discussion of folk tales, poems, short stories, and plays with particular attention to the characters of lover/beloved, the theme of romantic love, and the cultural and historical background of these elements. We will begin with essential examples of ghazels from Ottoman court poetry to explore the notion of "courtly love" and move to the most influential texts of 19th and 20th centuries. All readings and discussions will be in English; all student levels welcome.
Same as: COMPLIT 342

COMPLIT 144A. Istanbul the Muse: The City in Literature and Film. 3-5 Units.

The multiple layers of culture and history in Istanbul, a city on two continents between East and West, wrapped in past and present have inspired great art and literature. The class explores how Istanbul inspired artists and writers, and focuses on the idea of 'inbetweenness' through art, literature, music, and film seen chronologically. In addition to discussing literary, historical, and secondaty texts we will explore visual genres such as film, painting, and photography. All readings, screenings, and discussions will be in English.

COMPLIT 145. Reflection on the Other: The Jew and the Arab in Literature. 3-5 Units.

How literary works outside the realm of Western culture struggle with questions such as identity, minority, and the issue of the Other. How the Arab is viewed in Hebrew literature, film and music and how the Jew is viewed in Palestinian works in Hebrew or Arabic (in translation to English). Historical, political, and sociological forces that have contributed to the shaping of these writers' views.nnGuest lectures about the Jew in Palestinian literature and music.
Same as: AMELANG 126, JEWISHST 106

COMPLIT 145B. Africa in Atlantic Writing. 3 Units.

This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, colonialism, black internationalism, decolonization, immigration and diasporic return. We will begin with Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789), a touchstone for the Atlantic prose tradition, and study how writers crossing the Atlantic have continued to depict Africa in later centuries: to dramatize scenes of departure and arrival in stories of new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity and examine social fragmentation, to imagine new national communities or question their norms and borders. Our readings will be selected from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish-language traditions. And we will pay close attention to genres of prose fiction (Adichie, Condé, Olinto), prose poetry (Césaire, Neto, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Fanon, Glissant), reportage (Gide, Gourevitch), ethnography (Leiris, Ouologuem) and autobiography (Barack Obama).
Same as: AFRICAAM 148, AFRICAST 145B, COMPLIT 345B, CSRE 145B, FRENCH 145B, FRENCH 345B

COMPLIT 146. Asian American Culture and Community. 3-5 Units.

This course introduces students to the histories of Asians in America, specifically as these histories are part of a broader Asia-US-Pacific history that characterized the 20th century and now the 21st. We will combine readings in history, literature, sociology, with community-based learning.nnThe course takes place over two quarters. The first quarter focuses on gaining knowledge of Asian America and discussion key topics that students wish to focus on collaboratively. During this first quarter we also learn about community-based learning, set up teams and projects, and develop relationships with community organizations. The second quarter students work with student liaisons (senior students who have experience in service learning) and complete their work with the community¿there are no formal class meetings this second quarter. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center). Course can be repeated once.
Same as: AMSTUD 146, ASNAMST 146S, CSRE 146S

COMPLIT 146A. The Arab Spring in Arabic Literature. 3-5 Units.

An examination of the events of 2011 in the Middle East through literature. We will read short stories, poetry, graphic novels, and blogs in order to try and work out whether the revolution could have been predicted, and how it took place. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
Same as: COMPLIT 347

COMPLIT 147A. The Hebrew Bible in Literature. 3-5 Units.

Close reading of major biblical stories and poems that influenced modern literature written in English and Hebrew. Hebrew texts will be read in translation to English. Each class will include a section from the Hebrew Bible as well as a modern text or film based on the biblical story/poem. Discussion of questions such as: the meaning and function of myths and the influence of the Hebrew Bible on the development of literary styles and genres.
Same as: COMPLIT 347A, JEWISHST 147A, JEWISHST 347A

COMPLIT 148B. Indian Epics: Past and Present. 4 Units.

The Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the two great epics of India, have been crucial texts in South Asian literatures and cultures for millennia. In this course, we will explore the diverse traditions of both epics from their Sanskrit versions, first composed more than 2,000 years ago, through retellings in newer media forms well into the twenty-first century. Among our primary interests will be comparing versions of each epic that have circulated in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the West at different times. We begin with abridged translations of both the Sanskrit Mahabharata (including the Bhagavadgita) and the Ramayana. We will discuss the major literary, religious, and social themes of each text as well as subsequent translations and transcreations of the stories in Indian and Southeast Asian contexts during the last thousand years. We will also investigate the modern lives of the epics, including their transformations into Indian television serials, film versions of both narratives (from India and America), and invocations of the epic stories in contemporary art, culture, and political disputes. Students will gain exposure to some of the foundational texts for the study of South Asia, both past and present. More broadly, students will cultivate the ability to fruitfully approach texts from different cultures and learn to critically analyze the impacts and roles of stories in various religious, literary, and historical contexts.
Same as: RELIGST 108

COMPLIT 149A. Classical Arabic Poetry: An Introduction. 3-5 Units.

The primary litmus test of proficiency in the Arabic language is, and has always been, a command of classical Arabic poetry. Study and memorize the great lines of Arabic poetry with a manual that has stood the pedagogical test of time from the eleventh century until today. Questions of literary merit, poetic technique, metaphor, and divine and human linguistic innovation are all raised by the text that we will read together. Readings in Arabic, assignments and discussion in English. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
Same as: COMPLIT 346

COMPLIT 151A. Philosophies, Literatures, and Alternatives. 3-5 Units.

Aristotelian poetics and mediaeval Arabic literary theory. Nietzsche's irony and Philosophies and literatures, together and apart, dominate the last two millennia of human thought. How might they best be read? Are philosophy and literature two different ways of thinking, or are they just two separate institutional histories? This course starts with familiar Greeks, moves onto unfamiliar Arabs, confronts old Europe, and ends with contemporary Americans arguing.
Same as: COMPLIT 351A

COMPLIT 151B. Great Books: Dramatic Traditions. 4 Units.

The most influential and enduring texts in the dramatic canon from Sophocles to Shakepeare, Chekhov to Soyinka. Their historical and geopolitical contexts. Questions about the power dynamics involved in the formation of canons.
Same as: COMPLIT 351B, TAPS 151T, TAPS 351

Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.
Same as: COMPLIT 354B, GERMAN 154, GERMAN 354, JEWISHST 144B

COMPLIT 157. Contemporary Turkish Cinema and Society. 3-5 Units.

This course is an examination of contemporary Turkish cinema in a social and political context. The course will focus on films and directors that revived Turkish cinema starting with the mid-1990s with a focus on key issues pertaining to belonging, denied identities, masculinity, nationalism, silencing of women, and urbanization. The course aims to provide an overview of contemporary Turkish cinema and society in cultural, political, and social framework. There will be approximately two hours of film screening and two hours of classroom discussion/seminar (in English) each week. All films are in Turkish with English subtitles.
Same as: COMPLIT 357

COMPLIT 160. The Literature of Dehumanization. 3-5 Units.

An examination of a constellation in Western literature that specifically deals with a borderline state between humanity and animality, showing different approaches to the problem of humanity and non-humanity through some of the major works in the modern Western literary canon. The class explores the different ways in which dehumanization takes place in these texts, and how these texts also suggest a regaining of one's lost humanity. Readings include: Ovid, Marie de France, Shakespeare, Hobbes, Heine, Baudelaire, Tolstoy, Nietszche, Lautreamont, Kafka, Rilke, Celan, and more.

COMPLIT 161. Co-Existence in Hebrew Literature. 4-5 Units.

Is co-existence possible? Does pluralism require co-existence? Can texts serve as forms of co-existence? The class will focus on these and other questions related to coexistence and literature. Through reading works mostly by Jewish authors writing in Europe, Israel and the US we will explore attempts for complete equality, for a variety of hierarchical systems and for different kinds of co-dependence. Guest speaker: professor Anat Weisman, Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
Same as: AMELANG 175, JEWISHST 146

COMPLIT 162. American Poetry and Secular Prayer. 3-5 Units.

This course will explore the practice of "secular prayer" in early- and mid-20th Century North American poetry. We will look at diverse poetic examples of meditation, contemplation, exegesis and revelation in order to consider how and why poetry has maintained a particular relation to the sacred, even amidst a secular cultural and intellectual context. We'll also consider how this question has played out in several key strands of 20th century literary theory, with particular emphasis on New Criticism and Eco-Criticism. Primary readings will include the poetry of T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Audre Lorde, George Oppen, Robert Bly, Mary Oliver, Charles Wright and Jan Zwicky.

COMPLIT 168. Imagining the Oceans. 5 Units.

How has Western culture constructed the world's oceans since the beginning of global ocean exploration? How have imaginative visions of the ocean been shaped by marine science, technology, exploration, commerce and leisure? Authors read might include Cook, Equiano, and Steinbeck; Defoe, Verne, Stevenson, Conrad, Woolf and Hemingway; Coleridge, Baudelaire, Moore, Bishop and Walcott. Films by Painlevé and Bigelow. Seminar co-ordinated with a spring 2015 Cantor Arts Center public exhibition. Visits to Cantor; other possible field trips include Hopkins Marine Station and SF Maritime Historical Park.
Same as: ENGLISH 168, FRENCH 168

COMPLIT 171. Ethics of Jihad. 5 Units.

Why choose jihad? An introduction to Islamic ethics. Focus on ways in which people have chosen, rejected, or redefined jihad. Evaluation of the norms in moments of ethical and political choice. Topics include jihad in the age of 1001 Nights, jihad in the Arab Renaissance, jihad in Bin Laden's sermons, and the hashtag #MyJihad. All readings and discussion in English.
Same as: ETHICSOC 102R

COMPLIT 181. Philosophy and Literature. 5 Units.

Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track: majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature. Issues may include authorship, selfhood, truth and fiction, the importance of literary form to philosophical works, and the ethical significance of literary works. Texts include philosophical analyses of literature, works of imaginative literature, and works of both philosophical and literary significance. Authors may include Plato, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Borges, Beckett, Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas, Pavel, and Pippin. Taught in English.
Same as: CLASSICS 42, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181

Anna Karenina, the novel as a case study in the contest between "modernity" and "tradition," their ethical order, ideology, cultural codes, and philosophies. Images of society, women and men in Tolstoy v. those of his contemporaries: Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, Weber, Durkheim, Freud. Open to juniors, seniors and graduate students. Requirements: three interpretive essays (500-1000 words each). Analysis of a passage from the novel; AK refracted through a "philosophical" prism and vice versa (30% each); class discussion and Forum (10%).
Same as: COMPLIT 390, SLAVIC 190, SLAVIC 390

COMPLIT 194. Independent Research. 1-5 Unit.

(Staff).

COMPLIT 197. Designing a Digital Community: Human Rights. 2 Units.

This course will focus on helping to design, conceptualize, and populate an international human rights website. No knowledge of web design or of human rights is necessary to get started on this project. We have technical assistance available, though hopefully this course will attract students with those skills as well. Similarly, we will be learning about human rights as we build the site, explore and share resources and ideas, and reflect on the content. Preliminary site viewable at teachinghumanrights.org.
Same as: DLCL 197

In this course we will discuss selections from writings by Marx, Simmel, Keynes, and Hayek that focuses on money, a key but neglected aspect of their work. It is money that drives todays economies, rather than "business", the "market", "capital", or the "state". It is this exclusive concern with monetary phenomena that uniquely defines these authors and characterizes their work as philosophical rather than economic, sociological or anthropological.

COMPLIT 211A. Emile Zola. 3-5 Units.

A comprehensive introduction to and historical analysis of Emile Zola's literary work as foundational for the late-nineteenth century literary movement that we call "Naturalism." The analysis of Zola's novels will be embedded in the historical situation of France in the transition from the Second Empire to the Third Republic, with special emphasis on the epistemological situation of that time. Knowledge of French desirable but participation through English translations will be possible.
Same as: FRENCH 211

COMPLIT 213A. Martin Heidegger. 3-5 Units.

Working through the most systematically important texts by Martin Heidegger and their historical moments and challenges, starting with Being and Time (1927), but emphasizing his philosophical production after World War II. The philological and historical understanding of the texts function as a condition for the laying open of their systematic provocations within our own (early 21st-century) situations. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 313A, GERMAN 282, GERMAN 382

Introduction to Oscar Wilde¿s major works and their reception history in various international and transnational contexts from the 1890s to today, in conjunction with Wilde's iconic importance for LGBTQ history and rights: from Wilde¿s own love for Greece, Rome, and Japanese art, to his erotic and aesthetic networks in Paris; from international adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Salomé, The Importance of Being Earnest, and De Profundis across Europe, Asia, and the U.S.; to Wilde¿s vibrant afterlife in global cinema, the visual and performing arts, and popular culture today.

COMPLIT 217. The Poetry of Friedrich Holderlin. 3-5 Units.

A working through of the complex prosodic forms, existential and political concerns, and poetological reflections of both the most past-oriented and most pathbreaking German poet of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. A comprehensive introduction that will attempt to develop an innovative view in which Holderlin will appear as one of the founding figures of literary Modernity. Knowledge of German desirable but participation through English translations will be possible.
Same as: GERMAN 217

COMPLIT 218. The work of Luis Martín Santos in Mid-Twentieth Century Spain. 3-5 Units.

First published in 1962, "Tiempo de Silencio" is the only book that the young psychiatrist Luis Martin Santos finished during his lifetime, and, although largely overlooked (even in Spain) until the present day, one of the great European novels of the 20th century. It brings to a complex convergence the evocation of Spain's decadent and run-down post-Civil War society with high-modernist literary procedures and (an implicit parody of) phenomenological analysis.

In-depth engagement with a range of Dostoevsky's genres: early works (epistolary novella Poor Folk and experimental Double), major novels (Crime and Punishment, The Idiot), less-read shorter works ("A Faint Heart," "Bobok," and "The Meek One"), and genre-bending House of the Dead and Diary of a Writer. Course applies recent theory of autobiography, performance, repetition and narrative gaps, to Dostoevsky's transformations of genre, philosophical and dramatic discourse, and narrative performance. Slavic students read primary texts in Russian, other participants in translation. Course conducted in English. For graduate students; undergraduates with advanced linguistic and critical competence may enroll with consent of instructor.
Same as: SLAVIC 251

A comparative seminar on medieval love books and their reception. We will examine and question the notion of "amour courtois," which arose in the lyrics and romances of medieval France and was codified in Romantic-era criticism. Primary readings will be enriched by thinking about this notion through the lens of modern theories of desire, such as those of Girard, Lacan, and Zizek. Conducted in English with readings in translation.
Same as: FRENCH 234, ITALIAN 234

COMPLIT 222A. German Literature 3: Myth and Modernity. 1-5 Unit.

Masters of German 20th- and 21st-Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English. Undergraduates enroll in 222 for 5 units, graduate students enroll in 322 for 8 units.
Same as: GERMAN 222, GERMAN 322

COMPLIT 223. Literature and Human Experimentation. 3-5 Units.

This course introduces students to the ways literature has been used to think through the ethics of human subjects research and experimental medicine. We will focus primarily on readings that imaginatively revisit experiments conducted on vulnerable populations: namely groups placed at risk by their classification according to perceived human and cultural differences. We will begin with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), and continue our study via later works of fiction, drama and literary journalism, including Toni Morrison's Beloved, David Feldshuh's Miss Evers Boys, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann and Vivien Spitz's Doctors from Hell, Rebecca Skloot's Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical and policy writings of the period; and our ultimate goal will be to understand modes of ethics deliberation that are possible via creative uses of the imagination, and literature's place in a history of ethical thinking about humane research and care.
Same as: AFRICAAM 223, CSRE 123B, HUMBIO 175H, MED 220

We will study the history and current instances of genocide and waysnnin which the humanities deal with these. Mass slaughter would seemnnto be opposed by the supposedly humane nature of the humanities. Yetnneach realm of the humanities has its own constraints. We will studynnhistoriography, memoires, novels, and films in order to recognizennideologies of representation and signifying implications ofnnstructure. By discerning implicit values, students will gain toolsnnthey can use in working to eliminate genocide.

In this course we will examine Francis Petrarch's book of Italian lyric poems, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, and its reception in early modern France, England, and Spain. Readings from Petrarch's epistolary and ethical writings will contextualize historically and intellectually the aesthetics and ethics of the fragment in his poetry. With this foundation, we will investigate the long-lasting impact of Petrarch¿s work on Renaissance poetry and humanism, with attention to both the literary and the material aspects of its reception. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 325E, ITALIAN 225, ITALIAN 325

COMPLIT 226A. Queer Literature and Film. 3-5 Units.

Close analysis of major works of LGBTQ literature, film, and visual art from the 1890s to today. Students will gain deeper knowledge and appreciation of historical and contemporary forms of queer representation in various national literatures, film, and visual art; understand relevant social and political debates; and gain a basic knowledge of feminist and queer theory. Course will include an optional online component to reach out to the public (class website queerlitfilm.wordpress.com, social media).
Same as: FEMGEN 226A

COMPLIT 227A. The Ballad Tradition. 3-5 Units.

This team-taught cross-disciplinary course traces the history and aesthetics of the ballad in German, English, and Scottish literature, from the 18th century to the early 20th century. No knowledge of German is required, but reading knowledge is a plus.
Same as: GERMAN 200

In this course, we will explore the perspectives of scholars who have thought about what "digital humanities" means and the technologies and tools that are shaping new kinds of research, scholarship, and publishing. Topics will include history of the digital humanities, textual studies, electronic literature, computational and new media, and emerging work around text, image, and new media curation and visualization. This seminar is ideal for anyone interested in digital methods and digital in the humanities, teaching with new digital methods, or to learn about all the digital humanities projects at Stanford.nnThis course is organized as a mix of seminar and workshop and will be featuring a new platform called "Lacuna Stories," designed for Stanford students, that presents multiple platforms, media, and texts to digitally engage with narratives surrounding 9/11; active engagement by all participants is expected. Students may contribute to the field with a creative final project that they develop over the course of the quarter if they select the 3-unit option.
Same as: COMPLIT 338D, DLCL 228

COMPLIT 229. Literature and Global Health. 3-5 Units.

This course examines the ways writers in literature and medicine have used the narrative form to explore the ethics of care in what has been called the developing world. We will begin with an introduction to global health ethics as a field rooted in philosophy and policy that address questions raised by practice in resource-constrained communities abroad. We will then spend the quarter understanding the way literature may deepen and even alter those questions. For instance: how have writers used scenes of practice in Africa, the Caribbean or South Asia to think through ideas of mercy, charity, beneficence and justice? How differently do they imagine such scenes when examining issues of autonomy, paternalism and language? To what extent, then, do novels and memoirs serve as sites of ethical inquiry? And how has literary study revealed the complexities of narrating care for underserved communities, and therefore presented close reading as a mode of ethics for global health? Readings will include prose fiction by Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Amitav Ghosh and Susan Sontag as well as physician memoirs featuring Frantz Fanon, Albert Schweitzer, Abraham Verghese and Paul Farmer.
Same as: AFRICAAM 229, AFRICAST 229, CSRE 129B, FRENCH 229, HUMBIO 175L, MED 234

COMPLIT 230A. The Novel in Europe: The Age of Compromise, 1800-1848. 5 Units.

The novel after the French revolution and the industrial take-off. Novelistic form and historical processes ¿ nation-building and the marriage market, political conservatism and the advent of fashion, aristocracy and bourgeoisie and proletariat... ¿ focusing on how stylistic choices and plot structures offer imaginary resolutions to social and ideological conflicts. Authors will include Austen, Scott, Shelley, Stendhal, Puskin, Balzac, Bronte.

COMPLIT 233. Baroque and Neobaroque. 5 Units.

The literary, cultural, and political implications of the 17th-century phenomenon formed in response to the conditions of the 16th century including humanism, absolutism, and early capitalism, and dispersed through Europe, the Americas, and Asia. If the Baroque is a universal code of this period, how do its vehicles, such as tragic drama, Ciceronian prose, and metaphysical poetry, converse with one another? The neobaroque as a complex reaction to the remains of the baroque in Latin American cultures, with attention to the mode in recent Brazilian literary theory and Mexican poetry.
Same as: ENGLISH 233, SPANLIT 293E

Close reading and analysis of erotic-sexual and aesthetic-stylistic transgression in selected works by such authors as Baudelaire, Wilde, Flaubert, Rachilde, Schnitzler, Kafka, Joyce, Barnes, Eliot, Bataille, Burroughs, Thomas Mann, Kathy Acker, as well as in recent digital literature and online communities. Along with understanding the changing cultural, social, and political contexts of what constitutes "transgression" or censorship, students will gain knowledge of influential theories of transgression and conceptual limits by Foucault, Blanchot, and contemporary queer and feminist writers.
Same as: FEMGEN 236

COMPLIT 237C. Human Rights, Literature, Justice. 3-5 Units.

This course will have three components. The first will be a set of readings on the history and ethos of modern human rights. These readings will come from philosophy, history, political theory. The second component will consist of readings from various global locations that involve human rights in various ways, predominantly as they interface with issues of environmental justice. Finally, this course will involve students in creating and populating a website that will be not only the archive of our work in class but also build a set of resources to be shared with others (we will be adding partners from different locations to speak to us online from their locations as well as to share resources and ideas). We will come away from this class with a good introduction to human rights history and philosophy; a set of insights into a variety of imaginative workings-out of human rights and environmental justice issues from different global locations, and a rich web resource.

Drawing on poems, theoretical texts, and audio-visual materials, this course seeks to retrace the struggle for a modern poetic language in Iran from the time of the Constitutional Revolution (1905/6) to the Islamic Revolution (1979), and beyond. Topics include: the unresolved relationship between tradition and modernity; poetry as a vehicle of enlightenment and revolution; the quest for a new poetic expression of love; the construction of historical memory through literature; responses to the experience of modern alienation; the figure of the poet as dissident; and the subversive force of poetic form itself. Poets include: Iraj Mirz¿, `¿ref Qazvini, Nim¿ Yushij, A¿mad Sh¿mlu, Hushang Ebteh¿j S¿yeh, Siavosh Kasr¿¿i, Sohr¿b Sepehri, Mehdi Akhav¿n S¿les (¿¿le¿), Forugh Farrokhz¿d, and Esm¿¿il Kho'i. Secondary readings include texts by Theodor W. Adorno, Mikhail Bakhtin, Emile Benveniste, Maurice Blanchot, Michel de Certeau, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, and Paul Ric¿ur. Taught in English.

COMPLIT 239B. Literature and Social Online Learning. 3-5 Units.

Study, develop, and test new digital methods, games, apps, interactive social media uses to innovate how the humanities can engage and educate students and the public today. Exploring well-known literary texts, digital storytelling forms and literary communities online, students work individually and in interdisciplinary teams to develop innovative projects aimed at bringing literature to life. Tasks include literary role-plays on Twitter; researching existing digital pedagogy and literary projects, games, and apps; reading and coding challenges; collaborative social events mediated by new technology. Minimal prerequisites which vary for students in CS and the humanities; please check with instructors.
Same as: CS 27, ENGLISH 239B

COMPLIT 240A. Introduction to Hebrew Literature. 3-5 Units.

The influence of biblical poetry, piyut, and medieval Hebrew poetry on the development of Modern Hebrew poetry. With focus on voice, space, lyrical Subjectivity, Intertextuality, and Poetic Forms. Guest Speakers include Tamar Zwei, Susan Einbinder, Berry Saharoff, and Raymond Scheindlin.

COMPLIT 242A. Short Stories from South Asia. 3-5 Units.

This course will explore how cultural identities of the nations in South Asia were re-defined after the Partition of India in 1947, the independence of Sri Lanka in 1948 and the formation of Bangladesh in 1971. Comparative/cross-cultural study of stories will be taken up for indepth analysis based on certain themes like partition and violence, myth and narrative, gender and narrative, music and narratology, familial patterns, etc.

This course is an introduction to basic orthographic conventions and grammatical characteristics of Ottoman Turkish through readings in printed material from the 19th and 20th centuries. Selected readings will range from poetry to prose, from state documents, newspaper and journal articles to reference works. Course is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. Prior knowledge of modern Turkish is required (Completion of COMPLIT 248A, COMPLIT 248B Reading Turkish I&II and COMPLIT 248C Advanced Turkish OR AMELANG 184 & 185 First & Second Year Turkish OR a solid knowledge of Turkish grammar.) Please contact the instructor for more information.

COMPLIT 246B. Ottoman Translation Workshop. 1-2 Unit.

This course aims to provide students with training in reading printed Ottoman Turkish texts and translating them into English. Through translation we will explore not only syntactical and lexical problems, but also cultural history and politics as they relate to the texts. Open to undergraduate and graduate students. High intermediate or advanced level of modern Turkish and introductory level of Ottoman Turkish is required. Contact Burcu Karahan Richardson (bkarahan@stanford.edu) for more information.

COMPLIT 247. Bollywood and Beyond: An Introduction to Indian Film. 4 Units.

A broad engagement with Indian cinema: its relationship with Indian politics, history, and economics; its key thematic concerns and forms; and its adaptation of and response to global cinematic themes, genres, and audiences. Locating the films within key critical and theoretical debates and scholarship on Indian and world cinemas. Goal is to open up what is often seen as a dauntingly complex region, especially for those who are interested in but unfamiliar with its histories and cultural forms.
Same as: FILMSTUD 250B, GLOBAL 250

Reading Turkish I is an introduction to the structures of the Turkish language necessary for reading. It is designed to develop reading competence in Turkish for graduate students. Undergraduates should consult the instructor before enrolling for the course. Essential grammar, syntax points, vocabulary, and reading skills will be emphasized. This is not a traditional language course that takes an integrated four-skill approach; since the goal is advanced reading level, the focus is mainly on grammar, reading comprehension, and translation. With full concentration on reading, we will be able to cover advanced material in a short amount of time. The course is conducted in English, but students will be exposed to the sounds of Turkish, and will have the opportunity to practice pronunciation in class. nnCOMPLIT 248A Reading Turkish I is followed by COMPLIT 248B Reading Turkish II in the Winter and COMPLIT 248C Advanced Turkish for Research in the Spring.".

COMPLIT 248B. Reading Turkish II. 2-4 Units.

This course is the continuation of COMPLIT 248A Reading Turkish I, which served as an introduction to the structures of the Turkish language necessary for reading. It is designed to develop reading competence in Turkish for graduate students. Undergraduates should consult the instructor before enrolling for the course. Essential grammar, syntax points, vocabulary, and reading skills will be emphasized. This is not a traditional language course that takes an integrated four-skill approach; it focuses only on reading, and as a result we will be able to cover advanced material in a short amount of time. This course is conducted in English, but students will be exposed to the sounds of Turkish, and will have the opportunity to practice pronunciation in class.nnCOMPLIT 248B is followed by COMPLIT 248C Advanced Turkish for Research in the Spring.

COMPLIT 248C. Advanced Turkish-English Translation. 2-4 Units.

This course is the continuation of COMPLIT 248A Reading Turkish I and COMPLIT 248B Reading Turkish II. Refining advanced grammar, reading, and translation skills in modern Turkish through intensive reading and translation from a variety of source texts. Emphasis on Turkish cultural, historical, literary, and political texts depending on students' academic interests. Prerequisites COMPLIT 248A & B or prior knowledge of Turkish and consultation with the instructor is necessary.

COMPLIT 249A. The Iranian Cinema: Image and Meaning. 1-3 Unit.

This course will focus on the analysis of ten Iranian films with the view of conducting a discourse on the semiotics of Iranian art and culture.nEach session will be designated to the viewing of a film by a prominent Iranian film-maker. Students are expected to prepare for class by having previously examined other available films by the film-maker under consideration.
Same as: GLOBAL 249A

COMPLIT 249B. Iranian Cinema in Diaspora. 1-3 Unit.

Despite enormous obstacles, immigrant Iranian Filmmakers, within a few decades (after the Iranian revolution), have created a slow but steady stream of films outside Iran. They were originally started by individual spontaneous attempts from different corners of the world and by now we can identify common lines of interest amongst them. There are also major differences between them.nThese films have never been allowed to be screened inside Iran, and without any support from the global system of production and distribution, as independent and individual attempts, they have enjoyed little attention. Despite all this, Iranian cinema in exile is in no sense any less important than Iranian cinema inside Iran.nIn this course we will view one such film, made outside Iran, in each class meeting and expect to reach a common consensus in identifying the general patterns within these works and this movement. Questions such as the ones listed below will be addressed in our meetings each week:nWhat changes in aesthetics and point of view of the filmmaker are caused by the change in his or her work environment?nThough unwantedly these films are made outside Iran, how related are they to the known (recognized) cinema within Iran?nAnd in fact, to what extent do these films express things that are left unsaid by the cinema within Iran?.
Same as: GLOBAL 249B

COMPLIT 249C. Contemporary Iranian Theater. 1-3 Unit.

Today Iranian plays - both in traditional and contemporary styles - are staged in theater festivals throughout the world play their role in forming a universal language of theater which combine the heritages from countries in all five continents. Despite many obstacles, some Iranian plays have been translated into English and some prominent Iranian figures are successful stage directors outside Iran. Forty-six years ago when "Theater in Iran" (a monograph on the history of Iranian plays) by Bahram Beyzaie was first published, it put the then contemporary Iranian theater movement--which was altogether westernizing itself blindly - face to face with a new kind of self-awareness. Hence in today's generation of playwrights and stage directors in Iran, all know something of their theatrical heritage. In this course we will spend some class sessions on the history of theater in Iran and some class meetings will be concentrating on contemporary movements and present day playwrights. Given the dearth of visual documents, an attempt will be made to present a picture of Iranian theater to the student. Students are expected to read the recommended available translated plays of the contemporary Iranian playwrights and participate in classroom discussions.
Same as: GLOBAL 249C

COMPLIT 250. Literature, History and Memory. 3-5 Units.

Analysis of literary works as historical narratives. Focus on the relationship history, fiction, and memory as reflected in Francophone literary texts that envision new ways of reconstructing or representing ancient or immediate past. Among questions to be raised: individual memory and collective history, master narratives and alternatives histories, the role of reconstructing history in the shaping or consolidating national or gender identities. Readings include fiction by Glissant, Kane, Condé, Schwarz-Bart, Djebar, Perec, as well as theoretical texts by Ricoeur, de Certeau, Nora, Halbwachs, White, Echevarrîa. Taught in French.
Same as: FRENCH 248

COMPLIT 252A. Classic Arabic Poetry. 3-5 Units.

Introduction to the canon of Classical Arabic Poetry and to the classics of Arabic poetry from the sixth to the twenty-first century. Focus on skills needed to read and understand, from syntax and morphology to dictionaries, encyclopedias, memorization, and the internets. Readings in Arabic. Two years of Arabic at Stanford or equivalent required. Counts for the Arabic Track in the MELLAC Minor.

COMPLIT 252B. Classic Arabic Prose. 3-5 Units.

Introduction to Classical Arabic Prose and to the classics of Arabic prose ¿ from the 700s and the dawn of Islam to the 2010s and the Arab Spring. Focus on skills needed to read and understand, from syntax and morphology to dictionaries, encyclopedias, memorization, and the internets. Readings in Arabic. Two years of Arabic at Stanford or equivalent required. Counts for the Arabic Track in the MELLAC Minor.

COMPLIT 253. Honoré de Balzac. 3-5 Units.

Working through a selection of novels by the author widely considered as a founder of western (19th-century) "Literary Realism." Balzac's will be contextualized within his life and the French culture and literature of his time. We will also approach, from a philosophical point of view, the emergence and functions of "Literary Realism." Another focus will be Balzac's work as exemplary of certain traditions within Literary Criticism (particularly Marxist Literary Criticism). Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 253

A both systematic and historical presentation of "Deconstruction" as a philosophical and intellectual movement that dominated academic and general culture in many western societies during the final decades of the twentieth century, with special focus on the writings of Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man. Deconstruction's specific reception history obliges us to ask the question of whether the extremely high esteem that it enjoyed over two decades was intellectually justified â or the result of a misunderstanding. Participation through English translations is possible.
Same as: FRENCH 254

This seminar intends to follow the development of Existentialism from its genesis to its literary expressions in the European postwar. The notions of defining commitment, of moral ambiguity, the project of the self, and the critique of humanism will be studied in selected texts by Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Unamuno, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Joan Sales.

An analysis of apophatic discourses of love in medieval Persian mystical texts. The philosophical underpinnings and implications of Sufi thought are discussed in this course. However, the principal aim is to shed light on the radical poetic force of the Persian texts. Topics to be addressed include the fundamentally oral, temporal nature of mystic speech; the relation of the speaking ¿I¿ to the unknown and unknowable Other; the discourse of love in which God and the beloved are one; the linguistic fragmentation of mystical discourse, straining against the edges of meaning; the possibility of salvaging mystical experience in language; and, finally, the question of apophasis as a theologically and politically subversive act. Primary readings include texts by Ab¿ Sa¿¿d Abi¿l-Khayr, A¿mad Ghaz¿l¿, , ¿Ayn al-Qo¿¿t Hamad¿ni, A¿mad Sam¿¿ni, R¿zbeh¿n Baqli, Far¿d al-D¿n ¿A¿¿¿r, and Jal¿l al-D¿n R¿m¿. The primary texts will be complemented by readings from Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, Michel de Certeau, Jacques Derrida, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Emmanuel Levinas, and Paul Ric¿ur, among others. Taught in English.

COMPLIT 262A. Explosions of Enlightenment. 3-5 Units.

Eighteenth-century culture seen as permeated by intellectual and artistic practices and plays pushing principles of reason and rationality to an extreme that becomes self-undercutting. Such obsessions and practices are becoming more visible and prominent now, as the traditional concept of "Enlightenment" (synonymous with the 18th century) is undergoing a profound transformation. Among the protagonists of this seminar will be: Diderot as a philosopher and novelist; Lichtenberg as a scientist and writer of everyday notes; Goya, accusing violence and obsessed with nightmarish visions; Mozart as the excessive master of repetition and variation.
Same as: GERMAN 262A

COMPLIT 264. Walter Benjamin. 3-5 Units.

Walter Benjamin's work as cultural historian, critic, literary author and philosopher, seen from the trajectory of a German-Jewish intellectual life in the context of the first half of the 20th century. Providing such a historical perspective will be the condition for an actively critical reading of Benjamin's works; a reading that -- counter to the predominant Benjamin-reception -- will try to distinguish between works of purely biographical and historical interest and those Benjamin texts that prove to be of great and lasting intellectual value. Taught in English.
Same as: GERMAN 264A

COMPLIT 271A. Futurity: Why the Past Matters. 3-5 Units.

Drawing on literature, the arts, political discourse, museums, and new media, this course asks why and how we take interest in the watershed events of the modern era; how does contemporary culture engages with modern, made-made disasters such as the World Wars or 9/11? Readings and viewings include the literature of G. Grass, W. G. Sebald, Ian McEwan, Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy; the cinema of Kathryn Bigelow and Steven Spielberg; speeches by Barak Obama; and the theoretical writing of Walter Benjamin, Hayden White, Fredric Jameson, among others. Taught in English.
Same as: GERMAN 271

Advanced study in the humanities faces changes within fields, the university and the wider culture. Considers the debate over the status of the humanities with regard to historical genealogies and current innovations. Particular attention on changes in doctoral education. Topics include: origins of the research university; disciplines and specialization; liberal education in conflict with professionalization; literature and literacy education; interdisciplinarity as a challenge to departments; education policy; digital humanities; accountability in education, assessment and student-centered pedagogies.
Same as: DLCL 320, GERMAN 250

COMPLIT 281. Visions of the Future in Literature. 4 Units.

Emphasis on personal and collective future as perceived and described in works translated from Hebrew or written originally in English. Focus on novels, short stories, poems and movies that deal both with the future of Israel and the Middle East and the future of individuals in the area. Guest speaker on Science Fiction and the Graphic Novel. The course is part of "The Future of Storytelling" activities organized by Taube Center for Jewish Studies.

COMPLIT 281E. Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett. 3-5 Units.

In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 381E, FRENCH 214, FRENCH 314, ITALIAN 214, ITALIAN 314

COMPLIT 283. Masterpieces of Hebrew Literature from the Bible to the Present. 3-5 Units.

This course presents and reflects on some of the canonical works of Hebrew literature, from biblical era to the present. Discussing works such as the Wisdom Books and selections from the Midrash; and reflecting on important periods such as the Golden Age of Jewish Culture in Spain, the Renaissance, and contemporary Israeli literature, we will highlight linguistic innovation, as well as crucial thematic and philosophical concerns. Readings include the Book of Job, Psalm, Ibn Gabirol, Mapu, Rachel, Goldbegr, Agnon, S. Yizhar, Amichai, Oz and more.
Same as: JEWISHST 243

A presentation of human rights discourse around issues of how we "occupy" space. Centering on racialized spaces and the effects on a wide range rights in US and in other countries. Readings on human rights, history, critique. Deep readings in cultural texts and practices that name injustice and seek redress in a number of forms.
Same as: AFRICAAM 290, CSRE 290

Shakespeare and other early modern writers in relation to new work on Islam and the Ottoman Turk in early modern studies. Othello, Twelfth Night, Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice, and other Shakespeare plays. Kyd's Solyman and Perseda, Daborne's A Christian Turned Turk, Massinger's The Renegado, Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, and literary and historical materials.

COMPLIT 311C. German Capstone: Reading Franz Kafka. 3-5 Units.

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers. (Meets Writing-in-the-Major requirement).
Same as: COMPLIT 111, GERMAN 190, GERMAN 390, JEWISHST 147, JEWISHST 349

COMPLIT 312. Oscar Wilde and the French Decadents. 3-5 Units.

Close reading of Oscar Wilde's work together with major texts and authors of 19th-century French Decadence, including Symbolism, l'art pour l'art, and early Modernism. Points of contact between Wilde and avant-garde Paris salons; provocative, creative intersections between (homo)erotic and aesthetic styles, transgression; literary and cultural developments from Baudelaire to Mallarmé, Huysmans, Flaubert, Rachilde, Lorrain, and Proust compared with Wilde¿s Salomé, Picture of Dorian Gray, and critical writings; relevant historical and philosophical contexts. All readings in English; all student levels welcome.
Same as: COMPLIT 112, FRENCH 112, FRENCH 312

COMPLIT 313A. Martin Heidegger. 3-5 Units.

Working through the most systematically important texts by Martin Heidegger and their historical moments and challenges, starting with Being and Time (1927), but emphasizing his philosophical production after World War II. The philological and historical understanding of the texts function as a condition for the laying open of their systematic provocations within our own (early 21st-century) situations. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 213A, GERMAN 282, GERMAN 382

COMPLIT 315. Nabokov in the Transnational Context. 3-5 Units.

Nabokov's techniques of migration and camouflage as he inhabits the literary and historical contexts of St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, America, and Switzerland. His early and late stories, last Russian novel "The Gift," "Lolita" (the novel and screenplay), and "Pale Fire." Readings in English. Russian speakers will be encouraged to read Russian texts in original.
Same as: COMPLIT 115, SLAVIC 156, SLAVIC 356

A comparative analysis of João Guimarães Rosa's (1908-1967) work, with special attention to the novel Grande Sertao-Veredas, translated by a Stanford professor, launched by A. Knopf in 1963. Rosa's fiction disturbs gender, racial, and literary divisions by the creation of a Babelic Brazilian Portuguese language from the sertao. Students increase their literary vocabulary with new terms, nonada and conconversa, and a gallery of Indigenous, Afro-Americans, mestizos, and foreigners' characters. Discussions in English; readings in Portuguese and Spanish.
Same as: ILAC 367

COMPLIT 320A. Epic and Empire. 5 Units.

Focus is on Virgil's Aeneid and its influence, tracing the European epic tradition (Ariosto, Tasso, Camoes, Spenser, and Milton) to New World discovery and mercantile expansion in the early modern period.
Same as: ENGLISH 314

COMPLIT 321A. German Literature 2: Selfhood and History. 1-5 Unit.

How the literature of the period between 1750 and 1900 gives voice to new conceptions of selfhood and articulates the emergent self understanding of modernity. Responses to unprecedented historical experiences such as the French Revolution and the ensuing wars, changes in the understanding of nature, the crisis of foundations, and the persistence of theological motifs. Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Kleist, Heine, Buchner, Keller, and Fontane. Taught in English, readings in German. (Note: Fulfills DLCL 325 for AY 1415 for the PhD Minor in the Humanities).
Same as: GERMAN 221, GERMAN 321

How are literary and social scientific forms of cultural description, evocation, and interpretation related? The seminar reads classic texts as well as recent experiments, addressing issues of genre, rhetoric, epistemology, translation, authority, and collaboration. The emphasis is on writing as a situated practice¿embodied, relational, and historically circumscribed. Authors may include Malinowski, Mead, Benedict, Lévi-Strauss, Geertz, Taussig, Leiris, Conrad, Achebe, Said, Barthes, Kroeber, Le Guin, and selected contemporary ethnographies. Examples from film, visual culture, and performance art may also be included.
Same as: ANTHRO 321A

COMPLIT 324. Landscapes of the Sublime. 5 Units.

The modern notion of the sublime in philosophy, literature, and art, emphasizing its connection to space and landscape. Topics include: how global exploration contributed to the sublime in the late 17th and 18th centuries; the romantic interiorization of the sublime; and the sublime's connection to mimesis, power, work, and technology. Writers may include Milton, Burke, Kant, Deleuze and Guattari, Freud, the Shelleys, Coleridge, Hugo, Baudelaire, and Rimbaud; artists may include Gericault, Turner, Delacroix, and Friedrich.

This graduate seminar will serve three primary purposes: 1) we will create and inspire a dialogue to help us think through the application of comparative literary study in non-academic contexts, 2) we will refine our ideas by applying them in various exercises and settings, and, as a result, 3) we will need to investigate what is meant by the phrase "critical thinking." nnBroadly speaking, this seminar represents a forum for thinking creatively about the unique skills of a doctoral student as well as the specific challenges that await when pursuing career opportunities outside of academia. The goal is to come out of the seminar with a heightened appreciation of the humanities skill set in applications that may present new opportunities for the student. Texts will be highly cross-disciplinary, drawing from legal, financial, and technological traditions and mediums. No prerequisites required.

In this course we will examine Francis Petrarch's book of Italian lyric poems, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, and its reception in early modern France, England, and Spain. Readings from Petrarch's epistolary and ethical writings will contextualize historically and intellectually the aesthetics and ethics of the fragment in his poetry. With this foundation, we will investigate the long-lasting impact of Petrarch¿s work on Renaissance poetry and humanism, with attention to both the literary and the material aspects of its reception. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 225E, ITALIAN 225, ITALIAN 325

COMPLIT 327. Genres of the Novel. 5 Units.

Provides students with an overview of some major genres in the history of the modern novel, along with major theorists in the critical understanding of the form. Novels might include works by Cervantes, Defoe, Lafayette, Radcliffe, Goethe, Scott, Balzac, Melville, and Woolf. Theorists might include Lukacs, Bakhtin, Jameson, Gallagher, Barthes, Kristeva, and Bourdieu. *PLEASE NOTE: Course for graduate students only.*.
Same as: ENGLISH 327, FRENCH 327

COMPLIT 328. Literature, Narrative, and the Self. 3-5 Units.

The role of narrative in the well-lived life. Are narratives necessary? Can they, and should they, be literary? When might non-narrative approaches, whether literary or otherwise, be more relevant? Is unity of self something given, something to be achieved, or something to be overcome? Readings from Aristotle, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Camus, Sartre, MacIntyre, G. Strawson, Velleman; Ricoeur, Brooks; Shakespeare, Stendhal, Musil, Levi, Beckett, Morrison; film. Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 328, ITALIAN 328

COMPLIT 330. The Bourgeois. 5 Units.

Goal is to define the ruling class of modern times. Social history (Weber, Hirschmann, Marx); literary texts (Defoe, Goethe, Gaskell); and Henrik Ibsen who produced an intransigent criticism of the bourgeois ethos.

COMPLIT 331. The Contemporary. 3-5 Units.

Drawing on philosophy, theory, literature, and the arts, this graduate students seminar examines the concept of the contemporary and asks what it means to belong to our historical age: how do thinkers, writers, and artists make sense of the man-made catastrophes of the modern era; how by employing innovative thinking and aesthetics they allow us to consider the human condition as well as politics and ethics in our time. Philosophical readings include Arendt, Rorty, Agamben, Bauman, Taylor; literary readings include Marilynne Robinson, J. M. Coetzee, Phillip Roth, Sebald, Kluge, Celan among others.

COMPLIT 332. The Transatlantic Renaissance. 5 Units.

The emergence of a transatlantic culture in the early modern period. How is the Renaissance of Europe and England fashioned in a conversation with the cultural forms and material realities of the colonial Americas? And how do colonial writings expand and complicate the available understanding of the Renaissance? Readings in Columbus, More, Hakluyt, Spenser, Shakespeare, the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.

COMPLIT 333. Gender and Modernism. 3-5 Units.

Gender and sexuality in trans-Atlantic modernist literature and culture from the 1880s-1930s. Topics include the 19th-century culture wars and the figures of the dandy and the New Woman; modernist critiques of Enlightenment rationality; impact of World War I on gender roles; gender and the rise of modern consumer culture, fashion, design; the modernist metropolis and gender/sexuality; the avant-garde and gender; literary first-wave feminism; homoerotic modernism; modernism in the context of current theories of gender and sexuality.
Same as: COMPLIT 133

COMPLIT 334B. Concepts of Modernity II: Culture, Aesthetics, and Society in the Age of Globalization. 5 Units.

Emphasis on world-system theory, theories of coloniality and power, and aesthetic modernity/postmodernity in their relation to culture broadly understood.
Same as: ENGLISH 334B, MTL 334B

This course examines the Gothic as a both a narrative subgenre and an aesthetic mode, since its 18th century invention. Starting with different narrative genres of Gothic expression such as the Gothic novel, the ghost tale, and the fantastic tale by writers such as Walpole, Radcliffe, Sade, Poe, and E.T.A. Hoffmann, the course goes on to ask how the Gothic sensibility permeates a wide range of 19th century cultural phenomena that explore the dark side of Enlightenment, from Romantic poetry and art to melodrama, feuilleton novels, popular spectacles like the wax museum and the morgue. If time permits, we will also ask how the Gothic is updated into our present in popular novels and cinema. Critical readings will examine both the psychology of the Gothic sensibility and its social context, and might be drawn from theorists such as Benjamin, Freud, Lacan, Kristeva, and Zizek.
Same as: ENGLISH 338, FRENCH 338

In this course, we will explore the perspectives of scholars who have thought about what "digital humanities" means and the technologies and tools that are shaping new kinds of research, scholarship, and publishing. Topics will include history of the digital humanities, textual studies, electronic literature, computational and new media, and emerging work around text, image, and new media curation and visualization. This seminar is ideal for anyone interested in digital methods and digital in the humanities, teaching with new digital methods, or to learn about all the digital humanities projects at Stanford.nnThis course is organized as a mix of seminar and workshop and will be featuring a new platform called "Lacuna Stories," designed for Stanford students, that presents multiple platforms, media, and texts to digitally engage with narratives surrounding 9/11; active engagement by all participants is expected. Students may contribute to the field with a creative final project that they develop over the course of the quarter if they select the 3-unit option.
Same as: COMPLIT 228D, DLCL 228

An introduction to the theme of romantic love in Turkish literature, with particular attention to key classical and contemporary works that influenced the development of the Turkish literary tradition. Topics include close reading and discussion of folk tales, poems, short stories, and plays with particular attention to the characters of lover/beloved, the theme of romantic love, and the cultural and historical background of these elements. We will begin with essential examples of ghazels from Ottoman court poetry to explore the notion of "courtly love" and move to the most influential texts of 19th and 20th centuries. All readings and discussions will be in English; all student levels welcome.
Same as: COMPLIT 143A

COMPLIT 345B. Africa in Atlantic Writing. 3 Units.

This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, colonialism, black internationalism, decolonization, immigration and diasporic return. We will begin with Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789), a touchstone for the Atlantic prose tradition, and study how writers crossing the Atlantic have continued to depict Africa in later centuries: to dramatize scenes of departure and arrival in stories of new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity and examine social fragmentation, to imagine new national communities or question their norms and borders. Our readings will be selected from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish-language traditions. And we will pay close attention to genres of prose fiction (Adichie, Condé, Olinto), prose poetry (Césaire, Neto, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Fanon, Glissant), reportage (Gide, Gourevitch), ethnography (Leiris, Ouologuem) and autobiography (Barack Obama).
Same as: AFRICAAM 148, AFRICAST 145B, COMPLIT 145B, CSRE 145B, FRENCH 145B, FRENCH 345B

COMPLIT 346. Classical Arabic Poetry: An Introduction. 3-5 Units.

The primary litmus test of proficiency in the Arabic language is, and has always been, a command of classical Arabic poetry. Study and memorize the great lines of Arabic poetry with a manual that has stood the pedagogical test of time from the eleventh century until today. Questions of literary merit, poetic technique, metaphor, and divine and human linguistic innovation are all raised by the text that we will read together. Readings in Arabic, assignments and discussion in English. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
Same as: COMPLIT 149A

COMPLIT 347. The Arab Spring in Arabic Literature. 3-5 Units.

An examination of the events of 2011 in the Middle East through literature. We will read short stories, poetry, graphic novels, and blogs in order to try and work out whether the revolution could have been predicted, and how it took place. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
Same as: COMPLIT 146A

COMPLIT 347A. The Hebrew Bible in Literature. 3-5 Units.

Close reading of major biblical stories and poems that influenced modern literature written in English and Hebrew. Hebrew texts will be read in translation to English. Each class will include a section from the Hebrew Bible as well as a modern text or film based on the biblical story/poem. Discussion of questions such as: the meaning and function of myths and the influence of the Hebrew Bible on the development of literary styles and genres.
Same as: COMPLIT 147A, JEWISHST 147A, JEWISHST 347A

COMPLIT 350A. What is Left of Marxism. 3-5 Units.

A both historical and systematic retrospective on "Marxism" as the intellectual configuration and movement that most strongly influenced politics and the state of societies during the 20th century. Discussions will be grounded on a reconstruction of Marx's most canonized writings [especially "Capital"] as emerging from Hegel's work as their philosophical ground, and then proceed to a survey of "Marxism" in its most prominent forms of ideological and intellectual appropriation. Guiding questions [not rhetorical questions!] will be [a] what basic concepts developed by Marx have remained indispensable in 21st century world views and [b] whether "Marxism" today deserves more than an academico-antiquarian interest.

COMPLIT 351A. Philosophies, Literatures, and Alternatives. 3-5 Units.

Aristotelian poetics and mediaeval Arabic literary theory. Nietzsche's irony and Philosophies and literatures, together and apart, dominate the last two millennia of human thought. How might they best be read? Are philosophy and literature two different ways of thinking, or are they just two separate institutional histories? This course starts with familiar Greeks, moves onto unfamiliar Arabs, confronts old Europe, and ends with contemporary Americans arguing.
Same as: COMPLIT 151A

COMPLIT 351B. Great Books: Dramatic Traditions. 4 Units.

The most influential and enduring texts in the dramatic canon from Sophocles to Shakepeare, Chekhov to Soyinka. Their historical and geopolitical contexts. Questions about the power dynamics involved in the formation of canons.
Same as: COMPLIT 151B, TAPS 151T, TAPS 351

COMPLIT 353A. Experiment and the Novel. 5 Units.

A double exploration of experiment in the novel from 1719 into the 19th century. Taking off from Zola's The Experimental Novel," consideration of the novel's aspect as scientific instrument. Taking the idea of experimental fiction in the usual sense of departures from standard practice, consideration of works that seem to break away from techniques of "realism" devised prior to 1750. Texts by: Sterne, Walpole, Burney, Sade, Godwin, Lewis, and Goethe. Substantial readings in the theory of the novel.
Same as: ENGLISH 303

COMPLIT 354B. Poetic Thinking Across Media. 4 Units.

Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.
Same as: COMPLIT 154B, GERMAN 154, GERMAN 354, JEWISHST 144B

COMPLIT 355. Alterity, Ethics, Politics. 3-5 Units.

How do literary texts and the investigation into language allow us to think through, debate, and re-imagine our relation to others, and even the idea of alterity? And what ethical and political considerations feed into these discussions?.

This seminar will pursue the intuition that literary texts, due to their status as ¿fiction,¿ have always been intensely related to Death as the ultimate horizon of individual existence, a horizon that is only available to our ¿imagination.¿ We will concentrate on this ¿ largely unexplored ¿ link as an existential constellation of concrete historical and of challenging philosophical complexity. The discussions will begin with a detailed analysis of the canonical passages in Martin Heidegger¿s ¿Being and Time¿ from 1927 that try to understand the difference between Death ¿as seen from outside¿ and Death in its ¿Jemeinigkeit,¿ that is Death as the absolute end-horizon of individual existence which necessarily causes ¿Angst¿ because it is followed by ¿Nothingness.¿nnOn this basis and supplemented by an introduction into several present-day theories and reflections on ¿imagination¿ as a distinct potential of the human mind, we will dedicate the weekly seminar sessions to specific historical moments and different literary (and perhaps artistic) forms that have articulated the connection between Death and Literature (with the final choice of texts and paradigms being open to the participants¿ interests and area of competence). Topics and textual materials may include:nn- fifth century Greek Tragedy,n- Roman Stoicism,n- Medieval Epic in the context of Christian cosmology,n- Death as a horizon of individual existence in early Modernity (¿Don Quijote¿),n- the invisible presence of Death in baroque artn- the bracketing of Death in the context of the Enlightenment mentality,n- Death and suicide as gestures of Romantic self-stylization,n- the presence of Death in Classical and Romantic conception of musicn- Death and ¿the absence of God¿ in nineteenth century novels and philosophy,n- the experience of World War I and a new intensity in the experience of Death,n- Death and grand abstraction in artn- Death in mid-twentieth century Existentialismn- Death and its place in the ¿¿Anthropocene¿ as an early twenty-first century frame of mind.nnEmphasizing weekly the reading assignments and intense participation in the seminar discussions, this course is laid out for two units (no final paper) but open for the participation of auditors (including undergraduate students with specific areas of competence) who are willing to work through the full range of philosophical texts, literary texts, and artworks on the syllabus. Students interested in this topic should begin with a reading of Heidegger¿s ¿Being and Time¿ and try to remember own readings and forms of experiences that seem pertinent to this topic. Contact with the instructor during the summer months is encouraged (sepp@stanford.edu).

COMPLIT 357. Contemporary Turkish Cinema and Society. 3-5 Units.

This course is an examination of contemporary Turkish cinema in a social and political context. The course will focus on films and directors that revived Turkish cinema starting with the mid-1990s with a focus on key issues pertaining to belonging, denied identities, masculinity, nationalism, silencing of women, and urbanization. The course aims to provide an overview of contemporary Turkish cinema and society in cultural, political, and social framework. There will be approximately two hours of film screening and two hours of classroom discussion/seminar (in English) each week. All films are in Turkish with English subtitles.
Same as: COMPLIT 157

COMPLIT 359A. Philosophical Reading Group. 1 Unit.

Discussion of one contemporary or historical text from the Western philosophical tradition per quarter in a group of faculty and graduate students. For admission of new participants, a conversation with H. U. Gumbrecht is required. May be repeated for credit. Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 395, ITALIAN 395

COMPLIT 360B. The Theory of the Novel. 5 Units.

Topics will include: theories of the novel's origin; novelistic subjectivity; voice and text; body and text; the problem of the quotidian; democracy, revolution and novelistic form; and the peculiar dynamic of the novelistic trinity (author, character, reader).

The return of a term that was central in 20th-century criticism, and has all but disappeared in recent decades. Focus ison looking at concepts of style from various branches of linguistic and literary theory, and examination of some revealing examples in novels and films. Team taught with D.A. Miller from U.C. Berkeley.

COMPLIT 368A. Imagining the Oceans. 5 Units.

How has Western culture constructed the world's oceans since the beginning of global ocean exploration? How have imaginative visions of the ocean been shaped by marine science, technology, exploration, commerce and leisure? Primary authors read might include Cook, Banks, Equiano, Ricketts, and Steinbeck; Defoe, Cooper, Verne, Conrad, Woolf and Hemingway; Coleridge, Baudelaire, Moore, Bishop and Walcott. Critical readings include Schmitt, Rediker and Linebaugh, Baucom, Best, Corbin, Auden, Sontag and Heller-Roazen. Films by Sekula, Painlevé and Bigelow. Seminar coordinated with a 2015 Cantor Arts Center public exhibition. Visits to the Cantor; other possible field trips include Hopkins Marine Station and SF Maritime Historical Park. Open to graduate students only.
Same as: ENGLISH 368A, FRENCH 368A

The making of global heroes--and the many bodies of Chairman Mao. This course explores a number of key motifs of critical theory relevant to Chinese studies. It introduces some seminal theories of visuality and the making of (global) heroes and problematizes the writing of visual histories and the uses of Digital Humanities for this purpose. Part of an ongoing research project which focuses on two hyper-visible male protaganists of the twentieth century-Mohandas Gandhi and Mao Zedong. How have these flesh and blood men been transformed through the work of visual imagery into globally recognizable, transcultural "bio-icons"? Prerequisite: CHINLIT 127/207 or consent of instructor.
Same as: CHINLIT 371

COMPLIT 376C. Tragic Form and Political Theory. 5 Units.

Tragic form and political theory have in common a profound interest in the conflictual foundation of human society. This course explores how the two intellectual approaches define the actors of conflict, its causes, and its possible (or impossible) resolution.
Same as: PHIL 376C

COMPLIT 381E. Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett. 3-5 Units.

In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 281E, FRENCH 214, FRENCH 314, ITALIAN 214, ITALIAN 314

Anna Karenina, the novel as a case study in the contest between "modernity" and "tradition," their ethical order, ideology, cultural codes, and philosophies. Images of society, women and men in Tolstoy v. those of his contemporaries: Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, Weber, Durkheim, Freud. Open to juniors, seniors and graduate students. Requirements: three interpretive essays (500-1000 words each). Analysis of a passage from the novel; AK refracted through a "philosophical" prism and vice versa (30% each); class discussion and Forum (10%).
Same as: COMPLIT 190, SLAVIC 190, SLAVIC 390

COMPLIT 398L. Literary Lab. 2-5 Units.

Gathering and analyzing data, constructing hypotheses and designing experiments to test them, writing programs [if needed], preparing visuals and texts for articles or conferences. Requires a year-long participation in the activities of the Lab.
Same as: ENGLISH 398L